Multi User Games And Their Culture Essay

1925 words - 8 pages

Multi-User Games and Their Culture

Who owns the Internet? Nobody owns the internet just like nobody owns the economy. It is a phenomenon that exists and it can best be described as a tool used by a competitive world. Online games now culture teenagers into the world of “cyber-culture”. I like to refer to “cyber-culture” as the information configuration run by programmers. Playing multi-media games, young learners can configure bits of information they have gathered for a short term reward. Instead of being overwhelming through a vast domain of information, online games draw the attention of those who might not have searched the Web (for gaming information), networked (with friends and strangers for the best way to succeed) or read instructions, scenarios and instant text messaging. Where books might have been read, or television watched instead, games like “Runescape, a massive multiplayer adventure, with monsters to kill, quests to complete, and treasure to win (www.runescape.com)”, become top priority.

Thus, the legitimacy of the Web is directly linked to culture “outside” of the web, i.e. bulletin boards, online news sites where hard-copies of print exist and fantasy or entertainment media and literature.

In the beginning of the Internet, it was like a phone call, only in words or something. Big amounts of electronic signals were being sent through wires. “Duplicating a manuscript requires that one expend an amount of time and energy similar to that expended in the creation of the text one wishes to copy (Tribble and Trubek pg. 221).” Despite the attention the multi-player games attract, they are rearing a culture of “cut and paste”, “of delete and start over” and “copy and send”. On the screen, the young boys using sheet after sheet of notebook paper was supposed to be a joke with the viewer jokingly commenting “think before you act”. Perhaps a young viewer of the comedy nowadays might respond by commenting “you idiot, where is your word processor?” In the younger, less mature generation of “cyber-culture”, the same method is applied in games. You quit and start over if it is not going right.

When you log on to the internet you are connected by phone line, cable or cellular waves to a server and all the other people in the culture. If you participate on the World Wide Web, whether you know it or not, you are part of a “cyber-culture.” Granted the culture’s existence is still very new and much of it is being formed right now, but it is real. Some things that make this culture unique are there are no official governing bodies. In games like Runescape, “Whatever the time you log in there will be thousands of online players in our community to interact with”, the democracy of the internet is portrayed by the nature of the game. Like in e-commerce, the strongest competitor wins. “Combine that with over a 1000 different objects to find/trade and a large landscape to explore, you will always have something...

Find Another Essay On Multi-User Games and Their Culture

1537 words - 6 pages
. Their study consisted of collecting information of 813 college students from all over the country regarding the time spent playing video games and the quality of their relationships with friends and family. The results showed that as the video games usage rate was higher the quality of their relationships was poorer. The study was not focused to find a reason to those results but, if we think a little about the issue, it is not difficult to find

2083 words - 9 pages
adolescents in the ages of 12 to 17 years old in the United States said to have played some sort of game on their computer, console or portable device and on the web at least once in the past. 88% of the group in general reported to have spent an estimated average of 13.2 hours a week playing their respective games. With statics like in these in United States alone it isn’t hard to believe that the gaming industry does have a huge effect on

968 words - 4 pages
the present and the future because they impact children’s mind, behavior, and education.
Since the time that video games have come out there has been many researches and experiments to publish their effects on the players of the games. Several psychosocial characteristics, such as hostility, anger, and being diagnosed with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or Asperger syndrome, are suggested to be related to violent video games

874 words - 4 pages
the memory of college gamers. They used 120 students, both male and female, as their participants. Some students were avid video game users and others never play. They tested their memory skills and found a direct, positive relationship between the amounts of video games a student played and their memory skills. Students that played more games had better spacial memory, short-term memory, and visual perception. Some of the more complex action

1108 words - 4 pages
Violent Video Games and their Relationship to Violent Acts
It seems that in every facet of the media today, when it comes to teenagers and acts of extreme violence, people are quick to point the finger at violent video games. Several school shootings in the past were definitely used to target these types of games as the cause to violent youth. This response is usually not related to facts, but rather to emotions. People that blame violent

923 words - 4 pages
“According to data recently released by The NPD Group, in 2012, U.S. video game software sales reached $6.7 billion (174.8 million units) and computer game sales were $380 million (13.2 million units)” (Improving Economy). To many, the violent video game industry has turned all adolescents into mass murderers. However, they’re absolutely wrong. Very seldom do adolescents who play violent video games commit acts of violence, and the ones who do

1475 words - 6 pages
Without a doubt the Romans put on the greatest spectacle in the world, known as the Roman Games. These were various types of races and combats with people and animals held all over the Empire. Visitors to Rome tried to attend at least one game because they were amazed. Originally the games took place on religious festivals, but by the late Republic they became more secular. In the time of the kings these games still existed, but they occurred on

3859 words - 16 pages
of the main characters. The football players, who spent the first one and half seasons tormenting the glee club, are forced to join them in a performance, and quickly become the victims of the hockey team’s all-too-familiar bullying (complete with Slushee attacks). As a result, the football players decide not to perform, and forfeit their eligibility to play in the big game. Their absence is filled on the field by the show choir girls, who

1048 words - 5 pages
The media influences many aspects of American society. Media affects sexuality, gender roles, and family structure. The images of gender projected through the media correlates with gender norms held in society. The media demonstrates a misogynistic view towards women. Women, statistically, interact with media more than men and are exposed to the images the media promotes. Media distorts how women should look, their role in society, and sexuality

1397 words - 6 pages
Puerto Rican Music as Representation of Their History and Culture
Puerto Rican music is an evolving art form that expresses Puerto Rican culture and identity. The development of Puerto Rican music is also a reflection of their history, both being complicated by several layers. Social, political, and economic conditions are all related to the musical expressions of Puerto Ricans (Glasser, 8). Puerto Rican migration to the United States and

1092 words - 5 pages
The Romanichal have been in America since the middle of the 17th Century due to persecution and enslavement in Europe. Most countries in Europe had passed anti-Gypsy legislation, which prevented them from doing business or settling down and owning land, this combined with other types of persecution, caused the Romani to flee Europe. (Bokt, RomanyJib, 2014) Most of their traditions are passed down verbally because they are a nomadic people and

Similar Essays

1079 words - 5 pages
Video games, like most forms of pop culture and entertainment, are not considered to be a subject worth studying or evaluating. However, video games can have a profound effect on culture by repeatedly exposing their audience to a set of values and morals that could become part of the social norm. Considering that many view the gaming world as being male dominated and thus strictly for men, little seems to have been done to ensure that female

1000 words - 4 pages
Effects
Believe it or not, there are a lot of positive aspects in a video game. Acording to the “ DANA Foundation” educational games help children count, add or subtract, learn their colors, shapes and much more. Leapfrog Leapsters have a lot of educational value in them. The games that are made for it are to help young children learn all the basics before starting school. You have games such as Professor Layton where they have you solve different

3213 words - 13 pages
Video Games and Their Psychological Effects
Regarding developing of technology, it is obviously that video games are one of the most common used materials. Leaving the technology industry on the other side, our research question is concerning about interaction between younger population and video games. As media and other resources introduce world population with rising number of younger population’s usage of video games and changing of behavior

1560 words - 7 pages
someone’s fries. While unbiased studies of video games and their links to violence are hard to come by, recent research has shown that video games do not in fact have a casual link to violence, and may have the opposite effect.
While conclusive research has been elusive, violent video games really have no link to violence in the home or in someone’s life. The reason that research is so elusive however, is that everybody has their own definition of